Chapter 299

A few hours later, Daphne’s face cracks into a wide yawn and Jesse, sitting next to her on the couch, reaches out and pats her knee.

“Come on, lady detective,” he says, getting to his feet and offering a hand. “Let’s get you to bed.”

“The party’s not done though,” she protests, yawning again as she casts a hand out to where the rest of the group is lounging around the room, the conversation now quieter, more subdued.

“Oh, it will be done as soon as Ariel finally falls asleep into that eighth bowl of ice cream,” Jesse murmurs, gesturing over at where his cousin’s head is nodding, her finger slipping away from the spoon. “Which will be in about eight seconds.”

Daphne laughs and takes Jesse’s hand. He turns to her at the touch, giving her a brilliant smile and pulling her to her feet.

“You know I don’t need an escort,” Daphne says, smoothing her hands down over her skirts. “I can make it downstairs by myself – no one bothers me.”

“Oh, come on,” Jesse says, reaching his hands high above his head and fighting his own yawn. “Give me a chance to stretch these long-ass legs.”

“Are they long?” Daphne asks, looking curiously down at Jesse’s lower half and then bursting into a blush when he laughs, realizing she might have been rude.

“Yes, they’re long,” he says, starting towards the door and gesturing for her to follow. “The rest of the Sinclairs are all long and muscled torso, but my mother gave me these damn stilts. I’m like a crane.”

Daphne laughs softly, grinning and following Jesse to the door. Calls of goodbye and goodnight follow them towards the door and Daphne waves over her shoulder, taking particular care to meet Rafe’s eyes – his rather sad gaze as he, too, waves after her.

The hallway is quiet as the two make their way down it, their shoes echoing off the stone. “Did you have a good night?” Jesse asks, smiling softly down at Daphne as they wind their way down the stairs, his hands tucked neatly behind his back.

“I did,” she says, looking up at him. “I was excited for Ariel and…” she hesitates for a second, looking down at her feet, “glad to see Rafe again. I…want to be friends.”

Jesse makes a soft noise in the back of his throat, understanding.

They walk a few more feet in silence, Jesse giving Daphne her space, before she suddenly goes still, a little “oh!” escapes her mouth.

“What?” Jesse asks, turning back towards her at the bottom of the stairs. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing!” she says, her hands moving up to cover her mouth as she closes the few steps between them, her expression guilty. “I just – I totally forgot! I wanted to congratulate you on developing your magic!”

Jesse’s face bursts into a wide smile. “Ariel couldn’t keep her mouth shut about that, could she?”

Daphne grins back at him, dropping her hand from her mouth. “Was it a secret? She’s just very proud of you, Jess. Knew I’d be too.”

“You’re proud of me?” he asks, his smile growing bashful.

Daphne nods, deep and slow, tucking her own hands behind her back. “Will you show me what it does?”

“Um,” Jesse says, running a hand through his hair and looking around. “Yeah, sure…come…come over here.”

Impulsively, he grabs Daphne’s hand and tugs her down the hall after him. She laughs, eagerly following, and is surprised when they reach a window seat tucked into a corner next to a tower staircase. “Oh, I didn’t know this was here…”

“I’ve passed it a few times,” Jesse says, sitting down sideways and patting the other side of the long cushion before him, moonlight streaming in through the glass panes on his right. “There’s always some Ambassador Cadet sitting here studying, though. Hogging it.”

Daphne eagerly sits down across from him, nodding. “Stupid nerds,” she murmurs, making Jesse laugh. “So, what…happens?” she asks, a little anxious, looking him over like the magic is going to explode from him any second now.

“What did Ariel tell you?” he asks, turning his head and studying her, his eyes lingering on the soft skin of her cheek, blushing apricot in the moonlight. His jaw clenches, just subtly, as he tucks his fingers beneath his leg, stilling them.

“Um,” Daphne says, her blue eyes going distant as she thinks back, the fingers of one hand reaching up to twine absently in the ends of her curls. “Nothing, actually – just that it developed.” She blinks back to the current moment, meeting his gaze. “I think she wanted you to be able to tell me yourself.”

“Ariel,” Jesse says, one corner of his mouth curling up. “Such a peach. Okay…um, I’m going to show you now but…don’t get freaked out.”

“Why?” Daphne asks, sitting up straight. “Is it…scary?”

“A little bit,” Jesse says with half a grimace, no part of him wanting this perfect girl to be scared of any part of him – not for a minute, not at all. “But I’ll make it be nice, okay?”

“Okay,” Daphne says, relaxing a little and giving Jesse half a smile. “I trust you.”

Jesse drops his eyes, his mouth working hard against his smile. But then he concentrates, exhaling slowly and holding out his hands between them.

Daphne’s eyes go wide and she can’t help her little gasp when the air darkens in his palms and then shadows begin to swirl. He glances up at her, worried, but keeps going when he sees her shock turn to fascination and then delight.

Jesse lets go of his leash on the shadows a bit, letting them pool, and then dropping his hands and tipping two perfect little shadow kittens out on the cushion between them.

“Oh my…oh my god,” Daphne whispers, delighted, leaning down and peering at the little half-substantial kittens before her, the details of their soft fur perfectly rendered, their little grey eyes shiny and bright as they peer up at her in the moonlight. “They’re so…Jesse!” she laughs and looks up at him, delighted, making his face break into a bright smile. “They’re so cute! Why did you say this was scary!?”

“Because it…can be scary,” he says, laughing lightly and running a hand through his hair as she squeaks and leans down to peer at the kittens again, at the way they gambol about with little puffs of shadow breaking into the air with every tiny footfall. “It was scary, the first time, when I didn’t have as much control.”

“These two couldn’t possibly be scary,” Daphne coos, reaching out a finger. She hesitates, though, and then looks up into Jesse’s face. “Can I touch them?”

He nods to her and is glad she doesn’t see the shiver that passes through him as she looks back at the shadows, reaching out and stroking a hand over one kitten’s head, and then the other. “That’s so crazy…they’re like…half real, half smoke,” she murmurs.

“Yeah, I don’t really know how to describe it,” Jesse says, taking a deep breath. “My mom and I are going to experiment with it – I get the feeling that I can like…make them as sharp or as soft as I want? But…” he shrugs. “I just don’t really know yet.”

“That’s so cool,” Daphne sighs, sitting up straight and glancing between Jesse and the kittens. “Are they always…cats?”

“I can make them whatever I want,” Jesse says with a shrug, puffing the kittens away into ambiguous shadow and then reforming them again into two elaborate smokey knives and then two tiny crocodiles that snap their teeth and make Daphne laugh. Then, grinning, he turns them back into the kittens again. “But…the panthers feel right. Feel best.”

“Is that what they are?” she asks, sitting back against the window frame and absently petting one of the panther kittens that climbs into her lap. “Not house cats?”

Jesse laughs, likewise leaning back against the frame. “How dare you suggest my terrifying shadow panthers are house cats.”

“Oh, but they’re so cute,” Daphne murmurs, reaching for the other one, which hops into her palm. “I just want to give them a saucer of milk and let them curl up in a patch of sunlight.”

“Oh, I’m sure they’d oblige,” Jesse murmurs, turning again towards the wolf inside his soul, asking him for the thousandth time if he’s sure – that there’s nothing there. But his wolf just tilts his head back, giving a mournful howl and then standing up and shaking out his fur, confused. Because even though Daphne smells better than anyone they’ve ever met…there’s just no bond. It’s not there.

“What are their names?” Daphne murmurs, watching delightedly as the kittens crawl over her lap, pouncing at her skirts, one standing on her leg to bat a tiny paw at her hair, completely oblivious to the bitterness racing through Jesse’s veins as his eyes fasten on her perfect lips, spread wide into the prettiest smile he’s ever seen.

“You name them,” he says, impulsive, quite suddenly wanting her to be a part of this – to give a name to this shadowy fraction of his soul that he can pour out at will. Because even if his wolf insists that it wasn’t Daphne who woke this magic, he still wants her mark on it. Still wants, quite desperately, for it to be hers.

“Me?” Daphne asks, looking up into his brown eyes in surprise.

“You,” Jesse says, staring at her, memorizing the way she looks in this perfect moment. “Who else?”

She blushes then, looking down at the shadows in her lap, and his heart breaks clear in half.

“All right,” she says slowly, after a minute, reaching out a finger to tap one kitten on the nose. “This one is Tempest, Storm of Dawn,” she murmurs, making Jesse’s face break into a wide grin.

“And this one,” she says, moving her finger over to the next kitten, who sits up straight and looks eagerly up into her eyes, “is Mittens!”

Jesse bursts out into peals of laughter and a moment later Daphne goes with him, both of them leaning back hard against the stone on either side of the window seat, their joy echoing out through the castle, ringing against the stone.

“I’m sorry,” Daphne says, leaning forward and wiping a tear from one eye when her laughter subsides. “I’ll come up with something better –“

“No,” Jesse says, shaking his head, still laughing a bit, his eyes crinkled into little slits of joy. “No, please, it’s perfect – I love it –“

“Jesse, you can’t have a magical shadow panther named Mittens –“

But he reaches out and grabs her hand, leaning close and beaming into her face. “Daphne, I couldn’t name him anything else now,” he says quietly holding her gaze. “And I wouldn’t want to.”

Softly, Daphne curls her fingers against Jesse’s own, nodding and looking steadily into his warm brown eyes. “All right then,” she whispers. “Mittens it is.”